The Hollywood Western era is making a comeback with Kevin Costner leading a “four-film saga” called “Horizon: An American Saga,” stepping away from traditional Western narratives.
Costner, who will write, direct, and star in the films, aims to depict the complexity and challenges of survival in the 1800s, addressing conflicts between settlers and Native American tribes while highlighting the courage of early American pioneers.
“When no one wanted to make the first one, I got the bright idea to make four,” Costner said.
“So I don’t know what’s wrong with me. But I wanted it to step away from what we usually see in Westerns where there’s a town that’s already there. No one knows how [the town] came to be. There’s a guy comes in off the horizon, if you will,” he said.
“We don’t know much about him, except that he has some skills he’d like to put behind him and this town ends up needing those stills desperately … Too often, it’s just a convenience for the hero guy to knock down a dumb guy,” he added.
“I’m ashamed of what happened — I don’t know that I’m ashamed or embarrassed — but I want to project what really happened,” he said regarding the history of the West.
“There was a great injustice occurred in the West, but it doesn’t minimize the courage it took for my ancestors to cut loose and go there. And I recognized the resourcefulness it took and the bravery it took to leave and make this march across this country,” he said.
“It’s just a movie that shows the class of cultures. It’s our history. I love it. I can enjoy watching a movie like this if I feel like I can see myself in it, and I tried really hard for that to happen.”
The unique release schedule will see films hitting theaters only months apart, with the first expected on June 28.